A/N – I shall not bore you with excuses about the delay. But here it is, the next installment. This is really turning in to quite a novel…and I still have more ideas…and more…and more… :P Please enjoy.
Chapter 14
Shortly after Sam and Charlie got home, Jack entered carrying an armful of groceries. He looked rather surprised to see both of them home already, and looked even more surprised when Charlie slipped mysteriously off into his bedroom.
"Is something going on that I should know about?" Jack asked, walking over to Sam.
She shrugged, loosely draping her arms around his shoulders. "He's just being a teenager, that's all."
"Am I going to have to ground him?"
"I don't think so." Sam leaned in and teasingly nipped at his lips. "I love you."
"Ok ok," Jack smiled, wrapping his arms around Sam's waist and forgetting entirely about being mildly annoyed at his son. "I love you too, baby, but dinner isn't going to cook itself."
Sam rolled her eyes. "Go on, then."
Jack kissed her again and managed to disentangle himself from her, taking a step back. He'd barely turned and started towards the kitchen before a bright flash of light filled the hall. Jack froze. "Sam?" When he got no reply he turned around, gaping at the now empty space behind him. "SAM?!"
"Dad? What's wrong?" Hearing his father's shouting, Charlie had come bolting out of his room, eyes wide.
"She's gone!" Jack rushed to the door, pulling it open as though expecting to find Sam standing on the front porch. He whirled around to face his son with a perplexed look on his face. "I turned around, there was a bright flash of light, and now she's gone!"
"Sam was probably just abducted by aliens or something…"
"This isn't funny!"
Charlie sighed, rolling his eyes and muttering, "Seriously? Just think about what she does for a living…"
Out in far orbit of the planet, standing on the bridge of a huge, cloaked ship, Samantha Carter clapped her hands over her face and groaned. "Thor! I thought I'd asked you not to do this anymore!"
"I apologize, Major Carter." The small grey alien walked out from behind one of the consoles and blinked up at her. "I hope I was not interrupting anything."
"No…" Sam let her hands fall to her sides. "But you probably just gave my husband a heart attack."
"I apologize." Again, Thor seemed to not care in the least. "However, we have discovered something that I believe will be of great interest to you."
Sam sighed. "What is it?"
"Follow me."
Thor led her out of the bridge and down a corridor to what seemed to be a small hanger bay. Sitting in the middle of the space was a small, sleek, triangular shaped ship that wasn't even close to the size of a goa'uld cargo ship. It wasn't like anything Sam had seen before, but she did recognize the markings along the side…
"It's Ancient!" Her annoyance momentarily gone, she walked forward to run her hand along the smooth metal of the hull.
"Yes," Thor said, nodding. "We found it in orbit around a deserted planet. We'd found evidence of these smaller attack vessels before but this is the first intact one that we have discovered. After we studied it the council decided that it would be beneficial to allow you to have it."
Sam nearly choked. "What?! You're giving this to us?"
"We are." Thor nodded. "We will be observing any research you conduct, however, we have decided that you might be able to learn from it and improve your own ships."
"Wow…I don't even know where to begin thanking you…" Sam noticed that the entrance ramp to the ship was lowered and cautiously she climbed inside. There were a few separate rooms; a cockpit, cramped sleeping quarters, a storage chamber, and another multipurpose room.
Thor followed her. "It was intended for sustaining two people, with the possibility of a third in an emergency. You will find that there are drone-based weapon systems, as well as navigational systems and a program capable of dialing the Stargate."
"How many of the systems work?"
"We will not know until someone with the proper genetics attempts to operate it."
"Right." Sam walked through to the cockpit, staring around in wide eyed amazement. She knew several people back at the SGC that would be positively bursting to get their hands on this. Curiously Sam reached out to brush her hand over some complex looking control mechanisms.
She jumped when everything lit up and glancing at Thor she saw what she presumed was a surprised expression on his face.
"That is most strange…" Thor said, taking a few steps closer.
"Wait…so it works without the Ancient gene?" Sam frowned.
The alien shook his head. "No. It does require the gene. Apparently you must have it."
"But I don't! We've run tests, I've come in contact with Ancient technology before and it's never responded to me!" Sam scowled. "How can I suddenly just have a new gene in me that I didn't have before? Especially one like this."
"I believe that I may have an answer to that, Major Carter. Follow me."
Sam sighed, begrudgingly following him back out of the ship and hoping that he did realize she needed to be home in time for dinner.
Her reappearance in the middle of the kitchen caused far more of a stir with Jack than it did with Charlie. She had barely been gone for half an hour, but Sam had forgotten what things like being beamed up by an Asgard would look like to someone who had no clue what was going on.
"SAM!" Jack rushed over, grabbing her by the shoulders and looking ready to either just fall over or start shouting. "Where were you?! What the hell was that?!"
In response, Sam just pointed upwards, which earned a snort and an 'I told you so' from Charlie.
"Aliens?" Jack's hands tightened on Sam's shoulders.
"Yeah," she gave him a tight smile. "I'm sorry. I'm alright, don't worry, that sort of thing happens all the time."
"I told you so!" Charlie said again, walking over to the refrigerator and pulling out a soda.
Jack glared at his son. "You be quiet!" Taking a few deep breaths he turned to Sam. "Samantha…you scared me…"
"I'm sorry," Sam took a step closer, reaching out to gently stroke his cheek. "But that sort of thing happens from time to time, I've tried talking to them about it but…they're aliens. They've got their own schedule to be following. I'm ok, really." She smiled. "I might be more than ok."
Jack ignored the tone in her voice and pulled her to him in a tight hug. "That's all that matters...Ok, so now can I finally make dinner without you vanishing behind me?"
"Yeah," Sam rolled her eyes and walked over to the kitchen table. Turning she caught Charlie giving her an odd look. "What?"
"What did you mean?"
"Huh?"
"Just a minute ago, you said you might be 'more than ok'. What's that supposed to mean?"
Sam shook her head. "Nothing."
It wasn't nothing, of course, but if Jack wasn't going to pick up on it then Sam certainly didn't think it was the right time to tell Charlie. It all had to do with the reason the Ancient fighter ship had responded to her, and the reason that Thor was now so eager to meet Jack.
Monday rolled around and Sam took off from work. Charlie was at Sarah's that week, and Jack was going fishing with some old buddies, so when she finally dragged herself out of bed Sam was greeted with an empty and peacefully quiet house. It was strange, but in an enjoyable sort of way. She took her time making coffee in her bathrobe and pj's, then turning on the news, flipping through channels until she was thoroughly bored.
After she got dressed it took Sam only one quick survey of the house to decide that being a housewife definitely wasn't her thing. So she got dressed and grabbed her car keys, then headed out.
She had barely walked into the drugstore before her cell phone rang. Sam looked down at it and smirked, then tried to sound nonchalant as she answered it. "Hi."
"Hey," in the background behind Jack's voice she could hear the sound of a couple of other men talking, and the faint trickle of water around boat oars. "I just tried calling at home…where are you?"
"Just out running some errands," Sam walked down one of the aisles then stopped, frowning at the array of boxes before her.
"Oh, then hey why don't you pick up some potato salad while you're out. You know, in case I catch anything good. We could do a cookout later."
Sam smiled. "Just me and you?"
"Of course."
She scowled at the shelf now. Why did there have to be so many different ones? What was the difference, anyway? Her pride was too strong to ask the gum-chewing girl behind the counter for help, so Sam picked up one of the boxes and wrinkled her nose at the back of it. She'd only done this once before, and that was so long ago that she couldn't for the life of her remember which type of test she'd used.
"Sam?" She'd forgotten that Jack was still on the line.
"Oh…sorry…" She sighed. "Yeah, that sounds great. I'll swing by the store. Anything else I should get?"
"I just went the other day so I don't think so. There should be a bottle of wine at home, too, so don't bother getting any of that."
"Ok. When will you be home?"
"Shouldn't be too late. I love you."
"Love you too." Sam clicked the phone shut, and sighed down at the box in her hands. Well, it seemed as good as any.
Swinging by the candy aisle to grab a chocolate bar for moral support, Sam took the pregnancy test up to the front counter.
It was one thing to have a bank of complex Asgard bioscanners tell you that you're pregnant, but Sam found it to be a completely different sensation to be standing in the bathroom and staring down at the tiny pink plus sign. And she was sure it would be yet another experience to her Janet tell her exactly the same thing, but that would probably have more to do with the fact that her friend would be busy gushing over her.
Frowning as though she were puzzling over some complex equation, Sam walked into the living room and sat cross legged on the couch. She hadn't really thought one way or another when it came to having a baby, and now she supposed that her attitude had pretty much been 'if it happens, it happens'. But now that she thought about it, it started to bug her.
When would she request to be removed from active duty? Knowing that she had another life in her could she seriously justify going out and risking her own life, even now before the child was barely developed? What would she do, leave the kid home with Jack while she went running off across the galaxy? Drop the baby off at daycare on her way to a meeting with the Tok'ra? She bit her lip. Plenty of people at the SGC had families. Janet had Cassie after all and managed to be a single mom and still deal with aliens on a daily basis.
Sam found herself smiling. What was she worrying about? This whole thing would probably work out just fine and turn out to be just as wonderful as she had imagined.
Jack returned home in the middle of the afternoon and found Sam sitting on the couch, busily typing away on her laptop while some Discovery Channel special showed on TV.
"Did you catch anything?" She asked, looking up at him.
"Yeah, they're in the kitchen. Couple of nice ones," Jack said, grinning as he leaned over to kiss her. "I'm going to go fire up the grill." He turned.
Sam closed her laptop and stood, nervously clasping her hands and following Jack through to the kitchen. He must have sensed something was off, for he turned and raised an eyebrow at her.
"If you were Charlie I'd probably be asking you what I'm going to find broken."
"It's nothing bad," Sam said quickly. "But I do have to talk to you."
Jack made a face and moved to open up the cooler sitting on the counter. "See, the way you're acting is making that hard to believe."
"I've just never done this before. I'm nervous."
"What's so bad about grilling out?" Jack turned, holding one of the fish up by the tail. "It's a piece of cake. Or fish, in this case."
Sam gave him a flat look that was very reminiscent of Teal'c.
"Sorry." Jack winced, set the fish down and wiped off his hands before reaching out to brush the back of his fingers against Sam's cheek. "What is it? Are you pregnant or something?"
Sam's eyes widened. "How did you…"
"Shot in the dark," Jack shrugged then grinned. "Was I right?"
"Yeah, you were." Sam stepped forward into his embrace, letting her check come to rest in the curve where his neck met his shoulder.
Jack was laughing in a sort of carefree, delighted way that she'd never heard him laugh in before. Wrapping his arms around her body he pulled her closer, if that was possible. "Sam that's wonderful. That's amazing! Oh, sweetheart…"
"I still have to talk to Janet," Sam said, stepping back and taking Jack's hands in hers.
"Right, right." Jack gave her fingers a gentle squeeze, his eyes sparkling. "And they're going to take you off active duty now, right?"
"As soon as I tell them."
"And you're going to tell them tomorrow?"
"Yes, Jack." She laughed, leaning in to kiss him lightly.
Sitting around the dinner table later with candles, grilled fish, wine and the works, there was a definite nervous energy surrounding them. Sam kept biting her lip and looking up, appearing almost ready to bounce out of her seat. Their excited conversations were turning out to be sporadic at best and everything seemed to be drifting back to one particular topic.
Wonder why that could be. Sam rolled her eyes to herself, smirking down into her glass.
"So you know my friend Lou runs that little general store downtown," Jack said, trying yet again to begin a conversation. "They're expanding a bit and he wanted to know if I'd like to come run the sporting goods section."
"Oh?" Sam looked up at him.
"Yeah. I was thinking it might be nice, help get me off my ass during the day…" Jack grinned at her as though rubbing in the fact that all too soon Sam would be stuck at home. "And it would bring in a little extra cash."
"If you really think we'll need it…"
Jack shrugged, looking down at the table. "Well, I was thinking it probably wouldn't hurt to start looking for a bigger house…" He quirked an eyebrow at the huge grin his wife was giving him. "What's that all about?"
"Nothing," Sam reached out to grab his hand. "I'm just really happy."
Jack smiled. "Me too, hun, me too."